


Home sweet home

by Aeris444



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-18
Updated: 2014-12-18
Packaged: 2018-03-02 02:45:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2796794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aeris444/pseuds/Aeris444
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bradley and Colin get a house together</p>
            </blockquote>





	Home sweet home

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the lovely derenai for the beta and to osky291 for having encouraged me to take part in this big bang!

_Home is any four walls that enclose the right person._

_Helen Rowland_

 

  
“I think it’s the last one!” Bradley huffed as he put the big box on the floor.

 

“I hope so because I’m not sure we could fit more boxes in this room, you know.”

 

Colin looked around him for what should be their living room but was currently looking like some sort of warehouse. Even the couch had disappeared under boxes.

 

“Get used to it… As you’re leaving in two days, they’re gonna stay where they are for some time, you know,” Bradley added before leaning against the mantelpiece to catch his breath.

 

“I was hoping you’d have organized everything when I come back from Oxford!” Colin replied, coming closer to his boyfriend and making his puppy dog eyes.

 

“Colin, we both now that I’m a butterfingers! And you’ll be upset if your books and dvd’s are not organized like you want it...”

 

“You’re probably right. And I suppose unpacking is part of the living together fun?”

 

“Yep… That and being able to kiss you whenever I want.”

 

Of course Bradley concluded with a demonstration.

 

“Just kissing?” Colin asked with a smirk.

 

“The couch is covered in boxes and we haven’t put up the bed yet so…”

 

“The mattress then!” Colin said, drawing Bradley with him toward the bedroom.

 

***

 

“You’re sure you don’t want to stay the night, Neil?”

 

“Yes Colin! I’ve already booked a hotel room.”

 

“But you’re welcome to stay here! What is the guest room for…”

 

“That’s very kind of you but you just got back from filming and you ought to have some time alone with Bradley… I’m sure you’ll find a way to occupy yourselves!” Neil added with a wink.

 

Colin blushed.

 

“Yeah… Hum… Ok…”

 

Neil laughed and hugged his brother.

 

“Say hi to mom and dad for me! Tell them we will come to see them for Easter.”

 

“I will! Thanks again for inviting me tonight.”

 

A few more goodbyes and Neil was leaving.

 

Colin came back inside and found Bradley in the kitchen, loading the dishwasher.

 

“Neil is gone?”

 

“Yeah… I offered him the guest room again but he didn’t want to stay…”

 

Colin was pouting slightly.

 

“Hey, don’t be sad! I know you wanted to spend more time with your brother but we will see him soon enough! He said he’d try to be in Armagh when we go visit your parents,” Bradley said as he put down the plate he was holding to come and hug his boyfriend.

 

“I know but… Now that we have a guest room I thought he could spend the night here…”

 

“What did he say when you offered?” Bradley asked, kissing Colin’s temple.

 

“That I should enjoy some time alone with my boyfriend.”

 

A small smile appeared on Colin’s lips then.

 

“Have I already told you how much I love your brother?”

 

Bradley’s hand were now roaming Colin’s back, getting lower and lower.

 

“You have a dirty mind, Bradley!” Colin laughed and Bradley enjoyed to see his boyfriend happy again.

 

“I’m only following Neil’s advices! And if you’re so eager to have people staying the night, I should remember you that the Knights are coming next week for our housewarming party!”

 

Colin laughed slightly. “The Knights” as Bradley kept calling them were indeed coming. It would be the first time they’d all been together since a party at Eoin’s a few months after the end of Merlin. If they had kept in touch during the last two years, they hadn't managed to get reunited.

 

“Yeah… I’m sure Eoin will get sloshed and it would be safer if he stays here…”

 

“Yep! And Rupert will fall asleep in the couch if the party goes on past 1AM.”

 

They both laughed.

 

“Such great Knights indeed!” Colin noted.

 

“Hey! That’s because they know their King is in safe hands with his sorcerer!”

 

“Safe hands? Really? How do you know my hands are safe?” Colin asked before putting said hands under Bradley’s shirt and caressing his torso.

 

Bradley inhaled deeply and let his own hand cover Colin’s backside.

 

“I think it’s time to follow you brother’s advices.”

 

“Don’t talk about my brother now if you want to continue this!” Colin answered before kissing Bradley.

 

***

 

“Bradley?” Colin called when he entered their house, struggling with his luggage. No answer came. Bradley was probably still out.

 

Colin put his suitcases in the corridor and opened the door to the living room. As always after a plane trip he was parched. He went to the kitchen to find something to drink.

 

There was a post-it note on the fridge.

 

“Went grocery shopping. Will be back around 4PM. Love you. B.”

 

There was even a small heart and a shamrock clumsily drawn. Colin smiled and opened the fridge to find it nearly empty. He made do with some tap water.

 

Then he went back to the living room, ignoring his suitcases. Trips always made him sleepy and emptying his luggage could wait.

 

That’s when he sat in the couch that he noticed it for the first time. There, in the middle of his sitting room, next to the couch, was an armchair. Colin would have said it was a “new” armchair as it wasn’t there when he left two weeks ago but the seat was clearly not new.

 

The ugly flower-patterned fabric was worn out on the armrest and even torn on the back. The wood also seemed quite used.

 

Colin stood up as to study the odd piece of furniture from closer. Though, he didn’t touch it, unsure of what could happen if he did… He remembered the Sherlock episode where Sherlock was disguised as an armchair and slowly kicked on of the leg but nothing moved.

 

Reassured that the strange armchair wouldn’t attack him soon, Colin sat back in the couch and decided to wait for Bradley to clear up the mystery of the piece of furniture.

 

Of course, Colin fell asleep in the couch before Bradley’s return and when he woke up, he found Bradley sitting in the infamous armchair.

 

“Hey! Finally waking up?”

 

“Mmm… Careful… That’s going to eat you,” Colin mumbled.

 

“What are you talking about?”

 

“The armchair. It’s evil!”

 

Colin stood up and rubbed his face, trying to wake up properly before saving Bradley from the maleficent chair.

 

“Colin? Are you sure you’re not dreaming still?”

 

Colin shook his head.

 

“That Armchair has to be evil! Look at it!! It’s awful! And it appeared I our living room! It’s magic! Black magic!”

 

Bradley looked at Colin like he had a second head.

 

“Colin, there is no evil in this armchair! It’s my grandma’s.”

 

“Your grandma’s?” Colin asked, still unsure what to think about all this.

 

Bradley smiled and came to sit next to Colin.

 

“That armchair was in my grandma’s house and when I was young, I always sat on her knees, in that armchair, when she read me stories.”

 

“Oh… So, it’s not evil?”

 

Bradley shook his head.

 

“But why is it here?” Colin asked.

 

“When my grandma died, she asked to keep that armchair and since then, I left it in my mom’s house… I was moving to often to keep it with me… But now, we have our house so I thought it would be great to have it here and I had it delivered!”

 

“It didn’t appear suddenly, then?”

 

“Nope.”

 

Colin didn’t know what to say. The armchair was really awful but it was also important for Bradley. He had to find a way to make it disappear from the room but without upsetting Bradley.

 

As Bradley had started kissing his neck, Colin decided he would think about the armchair destiny later.

 

In the end, Colin managed to convince Bradley that the armchair would be better in the office where all their books were.

 

The night they moved the armchair, Bradley ended in Colin’s lap but Colin didn’t really tell him a story.

 

 

***

 

“We should get a cat.”

 

“What?”

 

“Yeah, you know, so we will be like these gay pair with an expensive purebred.”

 

Colin looked at Bradley then. He seemed serious.

 

“Do you plan on wearing black turtleneck, too?”

 

“It would be dashing with my blond hair and blue eyes!”

 

“You’re mad!” Colin concluded.

 

Of course, a few weeks and some not well hidden message from Bradley, the James-Morgan household welcomed Fluffy, a beautiful tabby kitty. Her name had been chosen by Bradley who thought that such a cute ball of fur had to have the cutest name possible even if Colin objected that really was gay.

 

She soon became the true owner of the house and sometimes, Colin wondered if she wasn’t their owner more than the other way round.

 

She had decided that the cushion in the middle of the couch was hers, even if that meant that Colin and Bradley had to sit on each side of the couch.

 

It was also near impossible for Colin or Bradley to work on their computers without Fluffy coming and lying with her head on the keyboard, where it was the hottest.

 

Though, when she deigned let herself be petted and cuddled, she was so cute and warm, it was impossible not to like her and want to pamper her. And they never regretted having adopted her. Not even the day she decided that Bradley’s head was the best place to sleep.

 

***

 

After nearly a year, Colin had realized that living with Bradley wasn’t always a bed of roses.

 

Bradley was messy and not fond of housework. He was also grumpy in the morning. He never put the cap back on the milk bottle, never rinsed the shower after he had finished.

 

Even if he never complained when Colin had to leave for work, he was always pouting the day before Colin’s departure, making him feel guilty.

 

After years of knowing each other, Bradley still found it funny to mock Colin’s eating habits and that just drove Colin mad.

 

Though, all these flaws disappeared when Colin came back home to find the dinner ready, candles lit in the living room, a bottle of wine and Bradley waiting for him.

 

These nights they always ended up cuddling in the couch. They weren’t night for sex or passion, they were moments to just enjoy being together.

 

Colin laid next to Bradley in the couch, his head on Brad’s torso. They often watched a film and Fluffy was always cuddling next to their feet. Colin loved the calm and the relaxed felling of these nights.

 

And it didn’t matter if the next morning, he would be angry at Bradley for transforming their bathroom in a public pool or for leaving bread crumbs everywhere. In these moment, their love was the only thing that counted.

 

***

 

When Colin thought about it, he had never really felt at home since he had left Armagh to study in Belfast. After that it had been dormitories, colocations, small flats… And none had ever felt like a home for Colin. He had enjoyed most of the place he had stayed in but he had always known he wasn’t there for long so he had never grown attached to any of these places.

 

Now, it was different. He had chosen this house with Bradley, not alone. He hadn’t chosen it because it was cheap or close to some theatre he would be playing in or convenient in a way or another. No, they had fallen in love with that house and since the first time Colin had walked inside he had been able to imagine their life in it. He had seen clearly the way they could put the furniture, the way they would move inside the rooms, the way they would stay here for good.

 

Though, it hadn’t been easy after that love at first sight… There had been the discussion with the owner who didn’t seem keen to sell his house to a gay couple. There had been the talk at the bank to set everything up. And then, all the work in the house, the layout of the rooms… Everything crammed between filming, rehearsals and plays… They had been obstacles, tension and even some arguments.

 

And now, they were here, in that house, with the walls painted, the furniture installed and their belongings finally organized. Their house. The place Colin was eager to come back to after filming, the place where he felt at home, where he knew he would find Bradley.

 

That was when Colin realized that feeling at home had nothing to do with the house itself but more with the people that were living in it.

 


End file.
